This invention relates to a paper feeding mechanism for a printer for feeding both perforated paper, namely web with holes perforated at periodic locations along both edges, and cut sheet paper without the perforation.
In paper feeding mechanisms for feeding perforated paper a paper feeding device having a pin tractor for improving the feed precision to a printing position generally feeds paper to the printing position, while the perforated paper is drawn out by a paper draw-out device from the printing position. And in this paper feeding mechanism paper draw-out speed in the paper draw-out device is so designed as to be slightly faster than paper feed speed in the paper feeding device. The perforated paper running in the mechanism is well prevented from being slackened so as to be kept in high feed precision.
In the feeding of cut sheet paper the above-mentioned paper feeding device with a pin tractor is impracticable, and the paper draw-out device is also unsuitable because of its faster feed speed than the normal feed speed due to the paper feeding device. Due to such a situation a different paper feeding mechanism from the above-mentioned one has been employed for the cut sheet paper feeding operation.
It has obliged double purposed printers handling not only perforated paper but also cut sheet paper to possess a complicated paper feeding mechanism, and the complexity of the mechanism has made the operation thereof inevitably troublesome.